Father Barry

Father Barry (1912-) was an Irish-American Catholic priest in Hoboken, New Jersey. In 1954, he successfully led a crusade to end corrupt union boss Michael J. Skelly's reign of terror on the waterfront.

Biography
Father Barry was born in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1912 to a family of Irish immigrants, and he became a Catholic priest. Barry's congregation consisted mostly of dockworkers from the Hoboken waterfront, and he was committed to fighting for justice, especially after corrupt union boss Michael J. Skelly had dockworker Joey Doyle thrown from a rooftop in 1954 for Doyle's agreeing to testify against him in front of the Waterfront Crime Commission. Father Barry, who was spurred on to act by the sadness of Joey's sister Edie, gathered several dockworkers in his church and asked them to cooperate with the Commission, although many of them decided to stay "D and D" ("deaf and dumb"). This changed when thugs armed with billy clubs attacked the congregants at the church, and Timothy J. Dugan agreed to help Father Barry. Sadly, Dugan was crushed by a whiskey crate in a staged accident, so Barry gave a sermon at the site of Dugan's death, telling the dockworkers that every murder was a crucifixion; he gave an impassioned speech even as thugs threw objects at him. Barry later recruited Terry Malloy as a witness, and he convinced Malloy to testify against Skelly instead of killing him (Terry was angered by Skelly's murder of his brother Charley Malloy). Ultimately, Skelly was imprisoned and expelled from the union, and Barry's work was finished.